Down to the Wire

Confronting Climate Collapse

David W. Orr

Includes a new preface

Clarifies the obscured truth about climate change that changes everything, for no matter what we do today, we are in for a hell of a ride

Explains how policy debate must recognize that climate change is a condition with which we will have to contend for a long time to come; and creates groundwork by examples of true leadership for a major modern paradigm shift

Identifies the disconnect between scientific facts and public policy over what's necessary and what's possible

Tells us how we can make changes to create an environmentally sound future and that even with some dark prospects there is hope for the future of mankind

Neither doomsday nor prescriptive like so many other books, Orr teaches by positive examples what can go wrong and how it can be repaired

Down to the Wire

Confronting Climate Collapse

David W. Orr

Description

Singled out as "one of the country's leading environmental thinkers" by Bill McKibben in the New York Review of Books, David W. Orr offers an exacting analysis of where we are in terms of climate change, how we got here, and what we must now do. Orr shows how political negligence, an economy based on the insatiable consumption of trivial goods, and a disdain for the well-being of future generations have brought us to the tipping point. We now face a long emergency of rising temperatures, rising sea-levels, and a host of other related problems that will increasingly undermine human civilization. Down to the Wire is a major wake-up call. But this is not a doomsday book. Orr offers a wide range of pragmatic, far-reaching proposals—some of which have already been adopted by the Obama administration—for how we might reconnect public policy with rigorous science, bring our economy into alignment with ecological realities, and begin to regard ourselves as planetary trustees for future generations.

Down to the Wire

Confronting Climate Collapse

David W. Orr

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition Preface IntroductionPart One: Politics and Governance 1. Governance 2. Late-Night Thoughts about Democracy in the Long Emergency 3. Leadership in the Long EmergencyPart Two: Connections 4. The Carbon Connection 5. The Spirit of ConnectionPart Three: Farther Horizons 6. Millenial Hope 7. Hope at the End of Our Tether 9. The Upshot: What Is to Be Done? Postscript: A Disclosure

Down to the Wire

Confronting Climate Collapse

David W. Orr

Author Information

David W. Orr, Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, Oberlin College

David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Special Advisor to the President of Oberlin College. He is the author of numerous books, including The Nature of Design and Ecological Literacy.